Enterprising Japanese PC case maker Scythe has come up with a design to cash in on iPod mania among Windows users: an all-white unit that mimics the player's clickwheel with its control and LED layout.

The circular panel is divided into five segments. In the middle is a circular button - the case's power switch - surrounded by four pie slices: a Reset button at 12 O'Clock; and a pop-out panel that hides a pair of USB 2.0 ports, a Firewire connector, and stereo input and output jacks at 6 O'Clock. Between these, on opposite sides, are two slices containing disc activity LEDs.

And just where the screen would be, there's a proportionally sized pop-out panel behind which you might hide a floppy drive, say.

The company will ship its A-Pod case on 14 July, Japanese-language site PC Watch reports (http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2005/0708/scythe.htm), which claims the price will be around ¥11,800 ($105/£60).

Beyond the interesting front panel, the A-Pod is a pretty standard ATX casing with room for four 5in drives and two 3.5in units. There's a 500W power supply on board with an extra connector for PCI Express graphics cards. ®

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